File:Frances (Appleton) Longfellow to Nathan Appleton, 17 September 1841 (92e9ad92-0102-4a18-899e-8f69f9c4e291).jpg

Manuscript letter

Archives Number: 1011/002.001-011#024

East Bourne Sep 17th 1841.
Dearest Papa,
We have received this mn’g your letters by the Columbia & opened Tom’s (for he left us a few days since to join Mr Augustus Thorndike who has tempted him to catch salmon in Scotland) thinking you might answer more definitely Mary’s request that I should pass the winter with her. As you do not decide to grand me permission & evidently & rightly suppose I hold to my original promise I feel bound to act up to it. If Mary was still in the very delicately sensitive & nervous state in which I found her, but which I rejoice to say is much changed for the better I should, I think, take the responsibility of remaining because I know you would certainly acquiesce in any-thing of material concern to her comfort & happiness. But our quiet life in this very pretty place, the sea air & a little touch of homeopathy which she has ventured upon under our Woolwich friend Scott’s directions, or the natural re-action of her constitution have triumphed so far over her debility that she is able to go about quite bravely - & walks a mile or more daily – so that I shall resign myself to leaving her [crossed out: quite] cheerfully, altho’ we both hoped you might extend your permit 6 months longer.
The storm you speak of occurred here about the same time & seemed like the death-groan of the summer, but, as I have usually found it, it was but an apoplectic stroke & the season retains much life & vigour afterwards. I prophecied you would be frightened to town, as Nahant [p. 2] has proved rather a chilly climate altogether for your rheumatic tendencies. The beginning & end of the English summer have amply made amends for the dampness & cold of its July - & we are now having weeks together of weather as delicious as our best Newport days. But altho’ we have become quite fond of this coast – with its rural villages & sloping downs – we quit it on Monday to decide in London whether Mary shall accompany me [crossed out: home] back which she sometimes thinks of seriously, not to disappoint you & to satisfy her own yearnings for home. You may think it rather late in the day to have any doubts, when it is even uncertain if berths could be procured, but she is just in that state that dreads a decision or likes to postpone it as long as possible. She is very desirous to make us a visit & is only doubting between this winter & next summer, hoping on the one hand much from the voyage, the change, the pleasure of seeing you all &c & on the other, fearing it would take Robert from a chance of finding some post here to his mind. I have been talking with him about this - & perceive that diplomacy was what he liked best & would have clung to [crossed out: had] if Mary had not had such a repugnance to its necessary evils, wandering into outlandish parts. Farming he next fancies but whatever he does it is with the feeling of an Englishman that it is his duty to keep under little Vic’s administration as much for Ronald as himself. It is a loyal obligation we, in our self-governing independance [sic] can hardly understand or sympathise with, but is evidently too strong a feeling to be uprooted easily from his mind. Mary has been of late, unable to study out what position would best content her but will now I hope make the effort. They feel that it is not fair to [p. 3] leave you in suspense about their coming but her mind cannot bear forcing, so you must await the arrival of the Columbia herself to ascertain how many to welcome back. If Harriet’s arrangements cannot be adjusted after a very summary manner they can try the Albion or Tremont for a few days till she can receive them.
You give no very charming accounts of the Whig management – the new machine seems to need oiling somewhere its movements have been rather jerky thus far not of the dignified ease needful to what is to be durable & useful. I may be allowed to judge I suppose after a woman fashion that perhaps Mr Everett would not, as an homme de societé, appear so well in London as in Summer St. His manners are so deadly cold & cautious & tho’ the English are themselves so reserved they like it not in American ministers. But I have no time to discuss this or any-thing else, I have written too rapidly to make myself very clear already I fear. We postponed till the last moment writing trusting to coming to a decision, & that you may not lose even this unsatisfactory scrawl I must hastily conclude – I hope Harriet will not allow herself to be too much depressed in spirits – Mary has not time to thank her for her kind letter – I do not regret any more than you the ‘decline & fall’ of the Tanner-dynasty as far as Mrs T is concerned but know not how Marianne’s place will be made up to me & think away from her Mother she might have had a better chance to enact Mrs Alonzo Andrews amiably. Ca’nt I get her back as my maid? But I will see when I return if some compromise can be managed – Good bye, au revoir au revoir dearest Papa, with a grateful heart that these 6 months have been added to my life I am ever yr aff
Fanny
[p. 1 cross] Mary was much pleased with the scarf, dear Harriet, which I always forgot to mention in my hasty scrawls.
I shall grieve sincerely if I cannot show off Ronald against Willie as I have been hoping lately to do so – He is now very unbround with the rash & is getting teeth as fast as mushrooms spring after a shower.
Love to every body.
ADDRESSED: HON N. APPLETON
ENDORSED: FANNY APPLETON / SEPTR 17. 1841

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